Over 7 mn forms distributed on 1st day of West Bengal voter enumeration

As part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, more than 7 million enumeration forms were distributed by over 80,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) on the first day of their house-to-house visits across the state, an official said on Wednesday.

The month-long exercise began in the state on Tuesday and will continue till December 4.

"On Tuesday, over 7 million enumeration forms were distributed by the BLOs," an official of the Election Commission told PTI.

BLOs continued visiting the residences of voters across West Bengal on Wednesday to distribute the enumeration forms, he said.

"Adequate security personnel are accompanying the BLOs for their safety. Yesterday, there were no untoward incidents reported from anywhere in the state. If any resistance is reported against a BLO, we immediately instruct the district electoral officers (DEOs) to investigate," the official said.

As part of the process, 80,681 BLOs have been deployed across the 294 assembly constituencies in the state.

Around 7.66 crore enumeration forms have so far been prepared, and each voter will receive two copies, the EC official said.

According to the guidelines for the SIR process, BLO would countersign both forms. The officer would retain one filled-up form for the Election Commission of India and return the second with a stamped acknowledgement, which may be required for future reference.

The SIR is being conducted in West Bengal after a gap of 23 years. The last such revision of voters' lists was held in the state in 2002.